Kuching: Coach Tam Iao San hailed his team’s spirit as Macau came back from a goal behind to notch up a 4-1 win over Laos on Sunday evening to book a place in the semi-finals of the AFC Solidarity Cup Malaysia 2016.
Laos took the lead through Khamphanh Sonthanalay after just three minutes but a brace from Nicholas Tarrao followed goals from Lao Pak Kin and Leong Ka Hang to secure a come-from-behind win that takes Macau into the tournament’s last four with one group game remaining.
Macau are now top of Group B on six points from their opening two games and Tam’s side cannot finish outside the top two having defeated Mongolia in their opening game of the tournament.
“Thanks to the team for their effort and the most important thing was they fought to the end,” said Tam. “It was very difficult to come for behind. I was hoping the players could focus on defending especially when Laos made some changes in the second half.
“We tried to drop back and use the counter attacks and the players did well, they defended well they organised the counterattacks and I’d like to say thanks to them.
“We already reached our target. Before we came here our target was to get to the semi-finals and we have achieved that and now we will fight game by game.
“For Macau it’s very difficult to organise the players and to have the chance to play international matches, but we want to encourage Macau football especially among the young generation. They can work hard and have a model for the top team, so we want to fight game by game.”
Despite the defeat, Laos remain in contention for a place in the knockout phase of the competition due to their opening day win over Sri Lanka and coach Valakone Phomphakdy was left to lament the conditions for Sunday’s game, with heavy rain falling throughout the opening 45 minutes.
“We were not prepared for the field conditions to be like this and it was a problem, but we tried to play and there wasn’t much difference between the teams,” he said “We had to play with the long ball in these conditions it’s not my preferred to way to play.
“We decided to play the second half differently we put more in attack because we need more goals. We were worried about the Macau players physically because we knew the conditions would be hard and we would lose power, so we needed to take the lead.
“But we weren’t lucky with the long ball and the goalkeeper struggled and that was our problem. We knew if we lost a goal we have to press more. Macau played well, better than us. Normally with our performance we can beat them because we know how they play.”
